What's Up with the Choice in UP?

I so agree with this line from Santosh Desai’s article:
“The selection of Yogi Adityanath as the UP CM is not an easy decision to read and make sense of.”
This choice seems so counter to the BJP approach in the Modi-Shah era, namely:
“So far, Hindutva has been used as a retractable weapon, deployed with some flexibility. It comes to the fore on occasion, and is otherwise deployed symbolically… The implicit promise is that Hindutva would be assertively deployed to win elections, but the focus would shift to talking about development and governance once victory was achieved.”

Why then did the BJP chose this man as UP CM? After all:
“The current strategy is working and the landslide win in UP is proof of that. What additional gain can a more muscular display of Hindutva bring to the party?”
Desai’s answer/guess? The BJP/RSS is thinking beyond Modi, i.e., beyond 2019 (or 2024, if Modi wins again in 2019). Is the RSS/BJP (correctly) assuming that the man after Modi probably won’t have the same ability to juggle the Hindutva-for-votes and governance-after-the-win approach, wonders Desai? Is that where the UP CM fits in?
“This would mean that while Modi would be the overall face of the government, the party’s ideological thrust would be more sharply represented by Adityanath.”
Is Desai right? Only time can tell. But it would make sense. Post-Vajpayee, the BJP had a vacuum that took a long time for someone to fill and excel in.

Desai never comes across as a fan of the right wing. Yet, he manages to be objective and analytical. This contrasts severely with how the rest of the media sounds. One of my colleagues nailed it when he said this about how the critics of Modi sound. Calling them the “lazy left”, he said:
“The lazy left that does one or both of two things: (a) equate Modi with Trump and try transference. If Trump is dumb, then so should be Modi and (b) people in India are dumb/naïve or uneducated and so they behave irrationally and vote for Modi even when his actions are obviously detrimental to people.”

Unlike Modi, who (love him or hate him) is associated with two pillars (Hindutva; and governance/growth), a description of the opposition fails to answer the question as to what they stand for. That fig leaf called “secularism” isn’t winning votes (for now, at least); and without it, the opposition is exposed to be ideologically barren. The emperor shahzade is naked!

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